The European Commission has formally warned North Macedonia that its own government officials are repeatedly ignoring th...

The European Commission has formally warned North Macedonia that its own government officials are repeatedly ignoring the Prespa Agreement, failing to use the country's constitutional name "North Macedonia" in official contexts. The warning appears in the EU's 2026 progress report, published November 4. The issue flared up again in December 2025 when North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski publicly stated he had effectively restored the use of "Macedonia" domestically, dropping the "North" that Greece spent years fighting to establish. Greece's Foreign Ministry fired back on December 17, reaffirming that the constitutional name is non-negotiable under Article 1 of the Prespa Agreement and warning that North Macedonia's EU accession prospects depend directly on compliance. The Prespa Agreement was signed on June 17, 2018 and entered into force on February 12, 2019, ending a decades-long dispute over what Greece argued was an appropriation of its northern region's name and historical identity. Under the deal, the country formally became the "Republic of North Macedonia." The Commission's annual report covers the period from September 2025 to September 2026 and found that government members and senior officials "occasionally disregard" the agreement. The EU stressed that bilateral agreements must be implemented in good faith, linking compliance directly to Skopje's path toward EU membership. Despite the tension, the report notes that cooperation between Greece and North Macedonia continues across infrastructure, energy, tourism, and trade. Greece, however, has made clear that goodwill on those fronts does not excuse breaches of a legally binding international agreement. The Prespa deal remains one of the most contested diplomatic agreements in modern Greek history, deeply unpopular with large segments of the Greek public who opposed any recognition of a "Macedonian" identity tied to their northern neighbor. #NorthMacedonia #PrespapAgreement #Greece